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It's been revealed today that Prince William will become the first King to have proven Indian ancestry. DNA tests show that his great, great, great, great, great grandmother was a housekeeper in Bombay in the early 19th century.

The connection traces back just eight generations, with the woman, Eliza Kewark, who was housekeeper to his fifth great-grandfather Theodore Forbes, born in 1788, a Scottish merchant who worked for the East India Company in Surat, a port north of Bombay.

The DNA was passed down through Eliza's daughters and granddaughters to Princess Diana.

Eliza, who was born around 1790 and lived in India when it was governed by the East India Company, is thought to have had Armenian blood because of her surname and the presence of Armenian script in letters from her to Theodore.

Dr Jim Wilson, a genetics expert at the University of Edinburgh and chief scientist at BritainsDNA, who carried out the scientific research said very little is known about her, including when she died.

He said: "Theodore described her as his housekeeper. It appears they weren't married.

"Mixed blood is something we celebrate today but that was very much not the case in the past."

The Duke of Cambridge has proven Indian ancestry, according to new DNA analysis.

Scientists testing saliva samples from Prince William's relatives discovered a direct link between the future king and a woman who was part-Indian.

The research shows that the second in line to the throne carries a rare form of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from his great-great-great-great-great grandmother. Mitochondrial DNA is a small piece of DNA inherited mostly unchanged from a mother to her children.

Both Prince William and Harry have inherited the Indian DNA and it may well pass down to their descendants. Credit: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

The mtDNA was passed on through daughters and granddaughters directly in an unbroken line to Princess Diana, then on to Prince William and Prince Harry.

Scientists said it is "very likely" that Prince William's heirs will also carry a small proportion of Indian DNA from Eliza, whose father may have been of Armenian descent.